Poland's environment ministry has a plan for a huge increase in logging in Europe's last great primeval forest, writes Zachary Davies Boren. Officials claim it's to control bark beetles. But ecologists say the insects are regulated naturally within the forest ecosystem, while logging threatens huge damage to irreplaceable biodiversity.
… Energydesk | 18th February 2016 News Forests Biodoversity Ecology UNESCO Poland … biodiversity. One of Europe's oldest forests is under threat from a new logging …
India's neoliberal government is attempting the mass seizure of indigenous lands, commons and forests in order to hand them over for corporate exploitation with mines, dams and plantations, writes Pushpa Achanta. But tribal communities are rising up to resist the takeover, which is not only morally reprehensible but violates India's own laws and international human rights obligations.
… India's Indigenous Peoples organise to protect forests, waters and commons Pushpa Achanta … November 2015 News India Indigenous Peoples Forests Water Energy Law Human Rights Mining … mass seizure of indigenous lands, commons and forests in order to hand them over for …
Financed by the World Bank, the Kenya Forest Service has intensified its illegal campaign of evictions, arson, beatings and arrests of the Sengwer forest people of the Embobut forest, Dean Puckett reports from the Cherangani Hills. And behind the violence lies the lure of hard cash - from the prospect of selling the forest's carbon to international financiers.
… Puckett REDD Monitor | 7th December 2014 News Forests Indigenous Peoples Law Climate Change … a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing …
A growing protest movement is demanding strong controls on international investors and logging companies buying up Romania's forests, writes Raluca Besliu. In its sights is Austria-based Schweighofer, which stands accused of criminal malpractice and accepting illegal timber shipments. The popular outrage stirred up by corporate misdeeds is now stimulating a wider democratic revival.
… Romania's 'occupy forests' movement demands clampdown on … Raluca Besliu | 21st August 2015 News Romania Forests Regulation Law Corporations Politics … and logging companies buying up Romania's forests, writes Raluca Besliu. In its sights …
The European Union's top court ruled today that increased logging in Białowieża broke EU nature laws. The Polish government must now reverse decisions that allowed logging, or face fines of up to tens of millions of euros. CATHERINE EARLY reports
… The forest is one of Europe’s last primeval forests, a Natura 2000 site, and a World …
The Gond tribe of Hasdeo Arand, the largest and oldest stretch of forest land in central India, is on the verge of losing its home in the face of coal mining.
… of June, women and children venture into the forests to get their hands on this local … cutter machines, cutting down his tribes own forests: “I used to feel horrible, the …
Villages in Hasdeo Aranya of Chhattisgarh, India, oppose illegal land acquisition and the allotment of coal blocks without consent.
… Hasdeo Aranya protests to save the forests Let India Breathe | 25th October 2019 … Minister for the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Shri Jairam Ramesh granted …
The Polish government has been ignoring a temporary ban on logging in the Białowieża Forest since July. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is now taking unprecedented action to protect the best-preserved primeval forest in Europe. CATHERINE EARLY reports
Poland ordered to immediately halt logging or pay massive fine Catherine Early | 21st November 2017 News Law Nature Habitat Forest Poland Logging bialowieza_forest_protest_-_catherine_early.jpg The …
Richard Brooks spoke out against the destruction of Canada's publicly owned boreal forests and loss of caribou habitat. His reward - a $7 million lawsuit from the country's biggest logger, Resolute.
… Richard Brooks | 25th February 2014 Comment Forests Canada Politics Law richard-brooks.png … destruction of Canada's publicly owned boreal forests and loss of caribou habitat. His … gets wood from millions of hectares of public forests. Much of the wood it uses to make …
Never mind Brazil's COP21 promises to cut its carbon emissions, writes Jan Rocha. New laws passing through Congress will encourage deforestation by removing safeguards and opening up indigenous territories to mega-projects. Serious drought is already contributing to a big increase in forest fires.
… Jan Rocha | 14th January 2016 News Brazil Forests Law Politics Farming Indigenous …
The COP20 host, Peru's President Humala, certainly talked the talk on indigenous rights last September when he signed a $300 million deal with Norway. But his violations of indigenous rights, 'hands off' approach to murders of indigenous leaders and recent unguarded comments betray his true sentiments.
… Chris Lang | 10th December 2014 Comment Peru Forests Law Indigenous Peoples Norway … agreement was signed under the New York Forests Declaration , AIDESEP and Rainforest … of Indigenous Peoples to protecting the forests: "We also recognize that Amazon …
Industrial logging in the world's second largest rainforest is out of control, writes Raoul Monsembula, and spells disaster for both wildlife and forest people. There is an alternative: community forestry has just been enshrined in law. But resources must be committed to law enforcement in Congo and abroad, and to empowering forest communities.
… Greenpeace Africa | 1st June 2015 Comment Forests Congo Africa Indigenous Peoples Law … million people who rely on the country's vast forests for their livelihood. They see little … on a portion or the totality of the forests it owns on a regular basis by virtue …
The Drax power station in Yorkshire is the UK's biggest CO2 emitter, burns more wood each year than the entire UK timber harvest, and is a major importer of coal from strife-stricken regions of Colombia, writes Frances Howe. This Thursday campaigners will target the company's AGM to highlight its impacts on forests, biodiversity, climate and communities, in the face of Drax's PR offensive to make biomass appear 'sustainable'.
… Howe | 10th April 2017 Activism Energy Forests Biomass Coal UK Colombia Protest … the company's AGM to highlight its impacts on forests, biodiversity, climate and … way of looking at a forest. The clear-cut forests of America Just over half of the wood …
Indonesia appears to brought rainforest logging under control - but it's all a huge illusion, according to a new EIA report. Traditional logging has been replaced by the mass clearance of rainforest for oil palm plantations, creating massive supplies of hugely profitable but often illegal timber. And lurking beneath the surface is a pervasive network of criminality and corruption.
… Oliver Tickell | 14th January 2015 News Forests Indonesia Farming Law Regulation pt … intent to halt the ransacking of the rainforests. But the importance of the … In its place, the conversion of rich forests to plantations for palm oil and other …
Biofuelwatch warn of an unfolding 'biomassacre' as the UK is set to rely on a growing amount of wood-based biomass, driving landgrabbing, replacing old growth forests with plantations, destroying biodiversity and causing air pollution
… Energy Biofuels Black Carbon Air Pollutiion Forests Biomass Coal foreststrees.jpg Biofuelwatch warn of an … driving landgrabbing, replacing old growth forests with plantations, destroying …
Forest-dwellers in Buriram province involved in a land dispute with the Thai government have been forcibly evicted, intimidated, arrested, held without charge, and dumped on a site unfit for human habitation with no water supply.
… six forest villages HRW | 23rd July 2014 News Forests Indigenous Peoples Thailand Law Human …
The Drax power station in North Yorkshire is among Britain's greatest greenhouse gas emitters, writes Almuth Ernsting. Not only is it burning some 6 million tonnes of coal every year, it is also burning its way through forests in the USA and other countries as it converts to biomass-fired units, rewarded by £1.3 million a day in subsidies. Join the #AxeDrax protest this weekend!
… Emissions Energy Biofuels Fossil Fuels Coal Forests USA UK drax-cut.jpg The Drax power … year, it is also burning its way through forests in the USA and other countries as it … total annual production. Biodiverse wetland forests reduced to pellets Virtually all of …
Death threats to an indigenous forest defender in Peru have followed his success in closing down an illegal palm oil operation on his tribe's lands carried out by a member company of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, now meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
… you' The Ecologist | 19th November 2015 News Forests Peru Indigenous Peoples Law Regulation … of over 5,000 ha of their traditional forests for conversion to a palm oil … this environment while our people and the forests suffer ." Robert Guimaraes, President …
In the battle to save America's real wild west of unlogged forests, grizzly bears, mountain goats, Bull trout, free flowing streams and roadless wilderness, a single person stands out, writes Jeffrey St Clair, for her dedication, courage and remarkable success: Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan, Montana.
… Clair | 26th July 2015 Activism Natural World Forests Water Conservation Law USA … to save America's real wild west of unlogged forests, grizzly bears, mountain goats, Bull … to the west, the valleys, alpine slopes and forests of the Swan Range retain much of the …
The Rampal coal power plant in Bangladesh, near the world's greatest mangrove forest, is a deeply misconceived project that must be abandoned, writes Johan Frijns in this Open Letter to the Exim Bank of India - which is planning to finance its construction. It would severely damage the precious local environment and wildlife, while adding to global climate change and sea level rise.
Exim Bank of India - stop support for the Rampal Coal Power plant! Johan Frijns Banktrack | 26th May 2016 Comment Climate Change Fossil Fuels Coal Bangladesh India Natural World Water Oceans …
A new report from Global Witness places India fourth in the league table of killings of environmental activists. As part of our collaboration with CLIMATE TRACKER, environmental law researcher MRINALINI SHINDE looks at the human trauma behind the statistics - and calls on India's urban elite to act.
… advocating for tribal land rights under the Forests Right Act, and consequent tensions … courageous forest officials, who protect the forests from poaching every day, have been … and the attackers had fled. In the Chapra forests in Madhya Pradesh, Jagdish Binjwar was …
For sheer guts, vision and results, a single organisation stands out among the US's environmental defenders - the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. Jeffrey St. Clair met its leader, Mike Garrity, winner of 2014's Grassroots Activist Award.
… 3rd March 2014 Comment USA Natural World Law Forests bridger-mtns.png For sheer guts, … rivers and rugged mountain ranges, ancient forests and high deserts, alpine lakes and … Act itself. In the meantime, many of those forests, ranges and rivers are under immediate …
Indigenous forest dwellers in India's iconic Kanha Tiger Reserve have suffered another round of illegal forced evictions at the hands of the country's Tiger Conservation Authority - a move that is threatening the future of the tigers themselves.
… who face a desperate future without their forests . Across India, many more face a … to stay in, live from, and protect their forests as enshrined in both Indian and …
Sarawak's lucrative logging industry has given rise to dynasties of enormous wealth and political power, writes Chris Lang, as revealed in this courageous investigation by Lukas Straumann. And the kingpin is multi-billionaire Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak for 33 years, whose whose property empire spans the globe.
… power and the destruction of Sarawak’s forests Chris Lang REDD Minitor | 24th December 2014 Reviews Forests Malaysia Corporations Law Politics … fact that only 0.5% of the world's tropical forests are in Sarawak. Samling and Rimbunan …